That's Smart: See the Tech Helping Us Serve You Better

Whether it’s at work or at home, things like a smartphone or a car’s voice-activation software free up valuable minutes of your day.

That’s exactly the idea behind something new we’re testing in a small number of our stores: using automation to handle tasks that are repeatable, predictable and manual, like scanning shelves for out-of-stock items, incorrect prices and wrong or missing labels. This new shelf-scanning technology frees up time for our associates to focus on what they tell us are the most important and exciting parts of working at Walmart – serving customers and selling merchandise.

We’ve tested this technology in a small number of stores in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and California. And based on these initial tests, we’re expanding it to an additional 50 locations. As with anything we roll out to our stores, the feedback from associates and customers will guide us in how and where we use this technology in the future.

This combination of people and technology is helping make our stores more convenient and easier to shop, ensuring that products are available when our customers want them. It’s just another example of how we’re using technology to save our associates and customers time.

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NOVEMBER 15, 2017 8:18 PM

Charlene Eller

I DO NOT LIKE scan and go! I usually go to a human but today there were so many people waiting in the checkout lines I decided to give the scan and go a try. BAD MISTAKE. I used cash and the machine did not register all my money so I was overcharged for my items. Then the machine crashed and it would not finish my checkout and give me a receipt. I have had it with your company and lack of cashiers you provide. I will take my business elsewhere where they will respect the customers.

Walmart Staff

NOVEMBER 16, 2017 4:24 PM

WalmartCorporate

Charlene - I can understand your frustration. I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Can you tell us more so we can look in to this: https://corporate.walmart.com/contact-us/store-corporate-feedback

NOVEMBER 12, 2017 7:30 AM

Christina Bombe Timms

are they going to bring it to all the academy stores? this would be a great places to test stuff like this.

Walmart Staff

NOVEMBER 14, 2017 1:36 PM

WalmartCorporate

Hi Christina,
Right now, we’re focused on testing it in a small number of stores, 50 by the end of February, to learn how to best use the new technology. The feedback from our associates and customers will help us determine when and how to best expand it to other stores.

NOVEMBER 5, 2017 10:21 AM

Brayan Trejo

I don’t think this would be a good idea for the Walmart in Liberty Texas do to so many things not being done right by some of the management.

Blue Star Families Helps Unsung Heroes: Military Spouses

When I said, “I do” under a bower of roses to my husband, resplendent in his Marine Corps dress blues, I had no idea that the years ahead would bring the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the long war, many combat deployments and many moves.

I love my husband and found extraordinary meaning in helping to serve my country. Along the way, I also found that the costs can be very high.

Like many military spouses, I moved. I moved and moved again. I’ve lost careers that I cared about – and was good at. These jobs helped support my family while resettling my children and maintaining a home for my husband as he retrained and left again. It’s a lonely place to be. But I wasn’t alone.

Many military spouses deal with additional obstacles like putting the needs of the military above their own career goals. These obstacles can make full-time employment nearly impossible. That’s one of the reasons why a group of military spouses (including myself) got together in 2009 to create Blue Star Families, a national nonprofit dedicated to empowering military families. We want our families to thrive by providing them resources, support and connections to their civilian communities.

According to Blue Star Families’ annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey, most military spouses are not working. More than 75% of military spouses surveyed say that being a military spouse has hurt their career, and more than half of those not employed are actively seeking work. Of the minority of spouses who do work consistently, most earn less than $20,000 a year.

This kind of financial instability hurts military families. We know that dual income military families are able to better participate in their local communities and thrive while they serve. But, unlike their civilian counterparts, most military families face more hardships and uncertainties, because they volunteered to serve.

This is why Blue Star Families applauds Walmart for their new initiative to tackle this challenge affecting our military and their families. Walmart is rolling out their Military Spouse Career Connection. Beginning November 12, 2018, military spouses who apply for a job with Walmart or Sam’s Club will be given preferential hiring status.

Military spouses move so frequently that delays in hiring can mean they are not able to work at all during a duty station. Walmart and Sam’s Club can be a particularly good career path for military spouses, because there’s almost certainly a Walmart store anywhere the military sends families in the United States.

Blue Star Families is also working to solve the problem of military spouse unemployment. One of our major initiatives in this area is Spouseforce, an interactive platform for career-minded military spouses. It works in some ways like a dating app--both employer and employee can identify a possibly compatible match before making any contact.

It’s my hope that our combined efforts will help military families become more financially independent, and that spouses will have greater access to fulfilling, meaningful careers they can take with them wherever the military sends them.

I invite you to learn more about Blue Star Families and join us as a Blue Star Neighbor to show you’re a supporter of military families. When you stand with us, you help us create more opportunities for military families in your neighborhood, across the country and around the world.

How Smartphones are Enabling a Smarter Way of Working in Stores

The number of things we’re able to accomplish through our smartphones today is truly amazing.

You can check the weather or stay up-to-date on the news. You can even sync your calendar with family to make sure everyone is on the same page. Thanks to a new initiative rolling out in our stores, our associates can now use their smartphones as that same kind of assistant at work – with tasks that are directly related to their jobs.

We’re rolling out Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in October to give associates another option to stay connected – this time from the familiar turf of their own smartphones. Although our sales floor associates can continue to access Walmart’s digital network by checking out a handheld device at the back of the store (in fact, we’re adding tens of thousands more of them to the stores over the coming months), they will now have the convenience of also using a smartphone if they desire. We know technology is helping our associates be more productive and deliver for our customers in new ways. BYOD is just another option our people will have to access the custom apps that help associates perform their jobs.

Through the new program, participating associates have the option to download our app suite directly to their own personal devices. This is another way to access the tools that help our people understand the health of their business, and spend more time on the sales floor serving customers. And the best part? Associates also receive a discount on their monthly phone bills.

With BYOD, the moment associates clock in at work, they have tools that enable them to do the best job possible, right in their pockets. Our suite of custom apps, which become accessible at clock-in, is also broader than ever before, complete with features like the PlanIT app – a hub for all announcements that directly matter to our associates, coming right from our home office in Bentonville, Arkansas.

For many associates who want to use their own device for work, privacy can be a concern. That is why we have been very specific about what Walmart can and can’t see on associates’ phones. Some pieces of information are helpful in making the program more useful for our associates. Other information is not necessary, so we don’t access it.

What CAN be seen by Walmart:

Battery Level

Make and Model of the device

Operating System (OS) version

Corporate Email and Data

Storage Usage

Carrier

Phone Number

Country

What CAN’T be seen by Walmart:

Personal Email and Data

Photos/Videos

Voicemail - Corporate or personal

Text – iOS or Android

Web Activity

List of Apps

Location

Spencer Schmidt is a sales floor associate at a supercenter in Fort Smith, Arkansas, one of the first stores that tested the BYOD functionality. He says the best thing about using his own device at work is the convenience of logging in as soon as he clocks in for his shift.

“BYOD basically works just like our store devices – I can pop it open when a customer needs help, look up items and find where they are in the store. But with my phone, the apps are always on me. As soon as I clock in, I can see what notes have been assigned to me and start working on them right away.”

And as our applications continue to evolve with the technology that delivers them, our people will have access to even more. Associates are excited to have more information at hand – to better themselves and to serve customers better. Whether it’s with BYOD or a store-issued device, each individual associate is more empowered than ever to take a leadership role in the success of their own stores.

We’ve introduced a lot of advanced technology to help our associates work faster and smarter, from virtual reality-based training to our Bossa Nova shelf scanners that make the inventory process quick and easy. Associates have caught on really well, but what I love about BYOD is that the tech we’re introducing is something that’s already second nature to most of our associates. It’s a smarter way to work – for the business, for our associates, and for customers.

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DECEMBER 5, 2018 9:58 PM

Close Listing

Cost changing is some other tedious undertaking that we've tended to, one that occasionally expected partners to invest minutes strolling forward and backward between walkways to find things. With the Price Change application, data about item value changes are classified by passageway so relates get them in the request they ought to be made, making an effective way through the store. Exact valuing enables clients to settle on educated choices on the items they need.

NOVEMBER 18, 2018 6:08 AM

Jino Yohannan

1. Direct smartphone shopping peaking
Already, 43 percent are smartphone shoppers and make purchases directly using their phone every week
Sixty-seven percent of them also regularly pay with their phone in store
2. Digital shopping assistants – the next shopping disruptor
Selecting the chooser for home and personal shopping is more important than making choices
Forty-seven percent of smartphone shoppers would like a service that automatically restocks everyday items.

NOVEMBER 15, 2018 8:26 AM

Brian Graley

Thus is awsome when will all stores get this

NOVEMBER 30, 2018 5:25 AM

Judith Bailey

It may be awesome to you, but we are using our data. This is costing YOU.

Army Principles Helped This Walmart Manager Move Up the Ranks

Elise Hackstall no longer wears an Army uniform. But to this day, the military values she learned in her years of service still inform her identity.

Take, for example, the honor code she learned as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy: She’s been known to quote it when talking to her 10-year-old daughter about the importance of honesty.

Then there’s a skill she honed as an Army personnel officer: Be direct and constructive, even when the message you’re conveying might be tough to hear.

For Hackstall, commitment, accountability and leadership weren’t abstract principles but essential traits that propelled her through a military career at Fort Knox.

When she joined Walmart, she quickly noticed a cultural overlap. The company's four basic beliefs had plenty in common with the seven Army values she already knew, sharing an emphasis on respect and integrity.

"A lot of it aligned with who I was," Hackstall says, "so that made Walmart a great fit for me."

That was over 10 years ago. Since then, Hackstall has been promoted multiple times. She started as a shift manager in Columbus, Georgia and became store manager at the biggest Walmart Supercenter in her market. That led her to an opportunity to move into human resources management.

Putting in the (Team) Work

Most recently, she moved back to operations as a developmental market manager, training to supervise teams across multiple stores. This position will give her the skills to apply for market manager positions that open up after her training is complete.

The training, along with her previous position as a market human resources manager across stores in four states, has introduced Hackstall to Walmart employees from a variety of backgrounds.

"It's really helped me to have a bigger appreciation of what kind of people make up our business—people from all over the country who help our stores to be successful," she says.

Hackstall's longstanding interest in human resources work extends back to her Army service at Fort Knox, Kentucky, where she was stationed after graduating from West Point. Hackstall served as a personnel officer and continued in human resources positions after transitioning to the Army Reserve in 2008.

She continued to serve as a reserve officer until this past spring, when she left the military to focus on her career with Walmart.

Hiring Heroes

Walmart is committed to recruiting former military members and matching them with jobs that fit their skills. Hackstall points out three skills that veterans often carry into civilian life: communication, commitment and accountability.

Military people know how to come up with a plan, articulate that plan and carry it out. When a store manager needs someone to run point on Black Friday, the biggest retail day of the year, she says, "If there's a veteran in the store, many times that's the person."

Hackstall adds that Walmart helps to create a network for the veterans it recruits. Recently, she talked with someone who was leaving the military and considering coming to Walmart. What advice did she offer?

"Anybody who joins Walmart will quickly realize whether the company is a fit for them or not," she says. "It's fast-paced, you have to be extremely adaptable, and you can't be rigid in your thought process."

"Limitless" Job Opportunities

Hackstall notes that Walmart offers a broad range of roles that might not be obvious to candidates who think mainly of the day-to-day tasks at a store. From medical services to real estate to information systems, Walmart's size creates all kinds of job types.

"There are limitless opportunities with this company," she says. "Whatever you want to do—short of being a brain surgeon or an astronaut—you can do for Walmart."

For Hackstall, spending time in her new role as developmental market manager fits with her long-term plan to gain experience in multiple facets of Walmart's business. When asked about the future, she doesn't hesitate.

"My end goal is to be the head of HR for the company," she says. "Every single position that I've taken has been to make sure that I am putting myself in a place where I can be competitive for that role."

In the ‘Nick’ of Time, Walmart Driver Helps Hurricane Baby

The week that Hurricane Michael hit Panama City, Florida, Nick Davis, like many other Walmart drivers, chose to forgo his regular trucking route.

With a shower trailer hitched to the back of his truck, he left his home in LaGrange, Georgia, to meet associates and their families at a local motel where they took shelter from damaged homes in the wake of the storm. That’s where he met Lorrainda, her husband, Wilmer, and their newborn son, Luke – a family in search of shelter after being discharged from the hospital and without a home only three days after Luke was born.

“If that was me and my family, I would want help.” Nick said, remembering the moment he saw Luke and his parents. So that’s what he did, along with several other Walmart truck drivers helping on the ground. “I was there at the right time and I wasn’t going to let them go.”

Nick and the team at the Walmart supercenter on Front Beach Road in Panama City Beach gathered last week to give Luke’s parents the baby shower they deserve, complete with one year of free Parent’s Choice diapers. You can see more of their story in the video above.

Editor’s note: Disaster relief remains one of the top priorities for charitable giving from Walmart, the Walmart Foundation and Sam’s Club, with a combined total of over $12 million contributed to hurricane response and relief just this year.